Velikoselsky Kremlin

The village of Velikoye near Gavrilov-Yam keeps a church complex that local people call the Velikoselsky Kremlin, although it was never a fortress. The ensemble took shape around the Cathedral of the Nativity, put up in 1709-1712 with money from Field Marshal Anikita Repnin in memory of the victory at Poltava: the village had been granted to him by Peter I after the battle, in which Repnin commanded a division. Wall paintings have survived inside the cathedral. Beside it stands the winter Church of the Intercession, and above them both rises the cathedral bell tower, fifty-six metres high: it was built in 1758-1761 under the contractor Ivan Zarubin, and its blank monolithic base gives way higher up to openwork arched tiers, while the decoration of the lower part repeats the motifs of the cathedral. From the road the bell tower is visible long before you reach the village. The buildings are enclosed by a wall with gates and are reflected in their entirety in the Black Pond, dug when the village was laid out and listed as a natural monument since 1985. The scale of the building work is explained by the fact that Velikoye was a wealthy trading village of flax growers, held its own fairs and was famous for the linens that spread far beyond the Yaroslavl province.

On the map